The following lines from Whitman will lead us into the sermon: “There was a child went forth every day; And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became; And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of […]

When my grandchildren were young my daughter bought them a series of children’s books called Where’s Waldo. It originated in England, actually, where it was called Where’s Wally. But Waldo fit better in the U.S.A. – I presume it’s because friends of Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to him affectionately as Waldo. The books consisted of […]

Opening words: Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and author of 40 books on spirituality… “When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with […]

Many of us are here because of what we don’t believe. Many of us were raised in a Christian church and were told that Jesus literally was born of a virgin, rose bodily from the dead, descended into hell, and later ascended into heaven ‘to sit at the right hand of the Father.’ We didn’t […]

So, this is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox – it must be Easter. The name comes from the Saxon goddess of Spring, Estre. Easter is about Spring – new life. Pablo Neruda. the Nobel-prize winning Chilean poet has a line in his poem On Keeping Quiet: “Perhaps the earth […]

Opening Words:  “At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? What am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? … It is wise in your […]

Opening Words: Salutation To The Dawn, By Kalidasa (Hindu) Look to this day! For it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course Lie all the verities and realities of your existence: The bliss of growth The glory of action The splendor of beauty, For yesterday is but a dream And tomorrow […]

This morning we welcome the Neighboring Faiths Class from the Unitarian Church in Danbury. Dylan Dempsey wrote a brief essay for Tufts University, where he is now in his second year. He wrote: “When I was twelve, my parents switched churches, from a white-steepled Congregational edifice to a glass-walled Unitarian wonder. They switched so I […]

The sermon title comes from William Blake’s poem, written in 1810, which opens: Deceiver, dissembler / Your trousers are alight / From what ole or gallows /  Shall they dangle in the night? As you know, Lance Armstrong cheated. First of all, he cheated death. At age 26 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had […]